The Best Caliber for Hunting Small Game with an Air Rifle?

I agree 100%

I think the .30 is a phenomenal small game caliber,

no meat wasted either if you want to try that argument once you take the low neck/high shoulder shot.

Meh. I'll take a .177 or a .22 (if I have to) anyday. Just get closer...

I've been thinking my next rifle will be .30 or even .35

I like the idea of an air rifle that meets or exceeds a .22 rimfire.

The .30 caliber might be an extremely good small game rifle but it’s not legal to use in Tennesse for small game. It has to be .25 or smaller according to TWRA regulations. Large game in Tennessee requires .35 caliber or larger so having a .30 caliber here to hunt with here is pointless. 

I like .25 cal. as my universal caliber. I've used it for mice, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, groundhogs, and even a few fox.

"Best Caliber" is a great question, but, hard to define universally, given the current availability of airgun styles and crossover weights between pellets and slugs in all the current calibers. So many factors and "what if's" play into what's best for you, your situation and needs. Could be a .177...Could be a .30 , or, somewhere in between. Quiet, loud, short, long, light or heavy, or whatever... All of it is subjective. Our relationship with the physical world plays a fair part in what we decide is "the best"

One shot, one kill. Tune for it and perfect it with whatever caliber you chose. Good luck and keep us posted on your choices..

Patrick

probably 25 .. 22 is very versatile but ive had 22 lose too much steam on longer shots on say rabbit .. but if your talking sparrows and chipmunks 17 is probably better, it shoots flatter ...

For rats at 10 to 20 yards, shooting in barns, squirrel in trees at 30 40 yards, rabbit out to 70 90 yards, my thinking, .22 a decent compromise.

Ps, Jim's video's are always a good watch.

Very educational. 

LOL there are more opinions than Walmart has pills! But they are all correct. Having said that, I use a .22 cal for all small game both fur and feathers. Works for me. The main thing is accuracy. Without that...caliber is moot.

I can understand your argument for the .25 and .30, but I think a lot comes down to the hunter's expectations. I prefer a small caliber for minimal damage. The .25 with dome pellets made a larger wound channel in a squirrel than my .22 rimfire with solids. I don't find it to be an ideal choice for my style of hunting.

I did enjoy your video, and you brought up some good points regarding caliber.

I've watched that video before. It's an interesting video and there are many opinions and enough options out there for everyone. But my real world experience has proven out that a .22 cal air rifle is more than sufficient to take small game quickly and cleanly. I've killed and do regularly kill a lot of small game with a .22 in both a springer and a PCP. Even in the lower velocity springer, the .22 is plenty. Squirrels are not the only critters I have taken with a .22 air rifle with ease. I think that some times people are looking for something "larger and more powerful" to compensate for a lack of shooting skills. Nothing wrong with a .25 cal......I may buy one myself one day and try it out. But never because I feel that a .22 just isn't enough. Because it is plenty enough!!



















I think the .22 is a very good small game caliber. In the above pics you can see that it does a very fine job of bagging game in either the springer or PCP. I walk into woods with absolute confidence with my .22s when hunting small game. There are also seemingly endless available options for ammo in the .22 as well. If a .25 or larger (can't imagine larger than .25 really for small game) is what you want.......then ok. But do not be fooled into thinking that it's necessarily better than the 22. Or rather, put it another way.......do not let yourself be fooled into thinking that the .22 is not enough.

TR

Think the key word here for me is Game & not Pests. I do pesting, however I am absolutely sure that my FX Boss, .30 would take down a pig or a coyote without breaking a sweat. It's my go-to. But even when pesting a 90 or 100 yard head shot has become ALMOST run of the mill for me. That being said, once I went to .25 & .30 calibers there was no going back to .22's or lower. The flatter trajectory & more terminal effect is what made me a believer & don't think I could be convinced otherwise (I'm talking pellets, not slugs)

EDIT, 9/5/22: About a month after I posted this reply I came into posession of an FX Bobcat, .22. I take back what I said about .22's. The accuracy of the Bobcat at near or far distances is spectacular. A head shot is a head shot, be it from my .22 or my .30. It kills! I still prefer my .30 as anything I hit is not likely to run away after the shot connects. Not so with the .22. I still enjoy using the Bobcat in situations where the property owners want us using lower caliber & I'm confident it will do the job but my .30 Boss has a MUCH higher rate of DRT's (Dead Right There). Plus, God help me, I love the SCHWACK sound & louder volume when it hits prey! Much louder than the .22.

All my .30 cal guns are also my most accurate guns.

In SC, if you want to hunt small game on public land you have to use no bigger than a 22. On private land you can do what you want. In my back yard I used to use my Prod, a 22, tuned up to about 17 fpe. Worked great at around 25 yards. More recently I got a 25 caliber P35. It's quieter so I've been using it for backyard duty and it seems to put them down a little quicker. It likes a light 25 pellet, the H&N FTT and I'm shooting them at about 875 fps. Quietly (~75db).

So my experience is that both work well but the 25 seems to kill a little quicker. Placement means more than caliber but if both are placed into the vitals, the squirrel may take a step or two more if hit with a 22. But the difference may shrink once Krale gets some more P35s in and I get a 22. Some of the difference may be 17 fpe versus 35 fpe.

I don't see a practical difference in terms of blood shot meat. I like head/neck shots the best but I often get a shoulder or two. When I do that, there is blood shot meat but also bone fragments to deal with. Doesn't seem to really be more with the 25 and there isn't much meat on a squirrel front leg anyway. Best way to avoid the impact is to hit them in the head or neck.

It's not a large factor to me but 22 ammo costs about half as much as 25 and there is a lot more variety available.

I thought long and hard on my first caliber. I specifically got into PCP Air gun as I was tired of the BS pricing and ammo availability with powder burners, specifically .22LR.

22 pellets are readily available and priced well. Once I verified my Cayden could shoot the Benjamin 14.3 gr. pellets well, it was time to stock up on $6.89 tins of 500 (Which by the way just doubled to over $12 a tin on Amazon.)



I have a nice stash of well over 15K, Which over the last 4- months was a little over $206.00 cost (30 tins of 500)

Pricing 50 tins (of 300count) of Diablo 25 at $18.80 a tin would be $940.00



At that price, I would have just stayed with Powder burners..... and the cost savings alone paid for the 75CF air tank I recently purchased.

I think for the majority of shooters, .22 Cal makes the most sense, has the most options, and can easily take all small game. I think as one wades into the hobby more, they might take the plunge at a 25 or 30 cal. At some point I may. but for now, I'm more than happy using .22 cal.

But I agree with him, there is no right or wrong, everybody makes their choices.

One thing I picked up from the video that was a new and helpful idea:

If you want an all-round gun to deal with both small and big quarry, get a bigger caliber. Because you can shoot small quarry with a big gun, but shooting big quarry with a small gun is generally not recommended. 



I also enjoyed Jim's treatment of supposedly "too much gun for the quarry" — loved it how he compared it to a 22LH, to show how the 22LH is normally way more gun than a PCP, and no-one ever talks about a 22LH being overkill for a squirrel....



Matthias

TiredRooster said:

I've watched that video before. It's an interesting video and there are many opinions and enough options out there for everyone. But my real world experience has proven out that a .22 cal air rifle is more than sufficient to take small game quickly and cleanly. I've killed and do regularly kill a lot of small game with a .22 in both a springer and a PCP. Even in the lower velocity springer, the .22 is plenty. Squirrels are not the only critters I have taken with a .22 air rifle with ease. I think that some times people are looking for something "larger and more powerful" to compensate for a lack of shooting skills. Nothing wrong with a .25 cal......I may buy one myself one day and try it out. But never because I feel that a .22 just isn't enough. Because it is plenty enough!!



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I think the .22 is a very good small game caliber. In the above pics you can see that it does a very fine job of bagging game in either the springer or PCP. I walk into woods with absolute confidence with my .22s when hunting small game. There are also seemingly endless available options for ammo in the .22 as well. If a .25 or larger (can't imagine larger than .25 really for small game) is what you want.......then ok. But do not be fooled into thinking that it's necessarily better than the 22. Or rather, put it another way.......do not let yourself be fooled into thinking that the .22 is not enough.

TR

Click to expand...

Thinking of getting the marauder over an fx line gun.

.22 cal has been the standard caliper for small game for many generations of hunters. I chose it over .177 or larger.

Caliper and power can never trump shot placement and accuracy.